Smells like shoebox 2

This is my first concert ticket. When I look back at the things that I've been obsessed with, my parents pretty much started me on them. They bought me my first comic book (Fantastic Four 182) when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade and I was pretty much a comic book dork through junior high. Although it was my childhood friend Brian that invited my brother and me on our first ski trips, our dad pretty much got the fever and picked up from there. After junior high, my mom and dad decided that it was probably time that we'd get into music and they bought us $100 worth of records. Our first purchases included David Bowie's Let's Dance, The Clash's London Calling, The Three O'Clock's Baroque Hoedown, and The Jam's Snap! And then our dad took us to our first concert: The Us Festival - Day 2. It's pretty cool to say that I not only saw The Stray Cats, Oingo Boingo, and The English Beat in their prime, but also The Clash's final show with Mick Jones.

Some other scraps from the shoebox...


This stub should inspire you to attend as many concerts as you can. Who knew that this would be the final tour for The Smiths? Since disbanding, the group's stature has seemed to grow exponentially. There are kids who worship the Moz and would kill to see a Smiths reunion. Who knows? Maybe David Johansen will get them to have a reunion, but I can say I saw the band at its peak. If I recall correctly, there was no opening band and it ended with a Morrissey pulling his shirt over his head while mobs of fans rushed the stage.


I went to a lot of hip-hop shows in the late '80s. PE, BDP, and De La Soul. Honestly, this show really sucked. It was for the Daisy Age trio's first album, 3 Feet High and Rising, and Plugs 1-3 just rapped over the records in a really half-ass manner. I recall being on a road trip to Stanford and taking the bus to San Jose to meet another friend at this show. I already had a ticket to their next show in L.A., and that performance sucked, too. They got better on their next tour.


I recall the morning when KNAC changed from "Rock 'n' Rhythm" to "Pure Rock." The alarm radio went off and Danzig's "Mother" played. That's when Slayer, Metallica, and Megadeth were all peaking out and G'n'R was changing everything. This stub was for Danzig's first solo album after Samhain. Chuck Biscuits was on drums and Voivod opened at this tiny greaser club in Anaheim.


This turned out to be a dream lineup. I was already into The Fleshtones and Three O'Clock and stoked that they were opening but the shocker was Billy Bragg who played a short surprise set before the Bunnymen went on stage. Incredible. In addition to him playing songs like "A New England," he said something like, "You Americans should send The Ramone back to England where we appreciate them!" Back to the Bunnymen, this tour was for Ocean Rain, their masterpiece.


Another stub that should compel you to see your favorite bands live. After this tour, in which the trio played Warehouse from beginning to end, the band imploded. I saw Sugar later on, but it just wasn't the same.


This is the first time I saw Siouxsie. I'm pretty sure it was the Tinderbox tour. Later on that summer, I saw them open for Bowie on the Glass Spider tour at Anaheim Stadium. I wish I kept all my old concert T-shirts... Another lesson to learn.


The Cramps blew my mind the summer after high school and before college. This was the "Can Your Pussy Do The Dog?" tour. The openers were Social Distortion, who seemed to be the Palladium's house band and seemed to be on every single bill. I'm pretty sure they opened for Siouxsie and PiL, too. If there was a good show at the Palladium and Social D. wasn't opening, that probably meant Mike Ness was probably in rehab or jail.


Okay, it's one thing to see a great band before they break up. It's another thing to see a rock god before he ODs. The lineup for this tour included Killer Kane, Silvain Silvain, Walter Lure, and Jerry Nolan. In addition to playing solo and New York Dolls songs, he played a cool acoustic set with a version of "Eve of Destruction." The only thing that could have been better would have been seeing him at the Whisky with G'n'R instead of the Roxy with Faster Pussycat and L.A. Guns.